


Starts So Soft and Sweet

by nicalyse



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-09
Updated: 2012-12-09
Packaged: 2017-11-20 17:33:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/587950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nicalyse/pseuds/nicalyse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Red kisses him for the first time two nights after a full moon, a night that she spent walking with him in the rain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Starts So Soft and Sweet

**Author's Note:**

> This assumes that Red gained control of the wolf before The Huntsman lost his heart.

The Huntsman the strangest man she's ever seen.

Beautiful. Unspeakably gentle, even in the kill. Respectful. Reverent, even.

She follows him to be sure he stays safe - _these nights are more dangerous than he knows_ \- keeping her distance.

She knows the moment when he realizes that she is there.

His body stills but doesn't tense, even as she closes the space between them, circling around to approach him from the front. She lowers her head, dropping her eyes from his, conveying that he is safe the only way that she knows how. When she hears the softest exhalation of his breath, she knows that she has succeeded.

"You're beautiful," he whispers, unblinking when she lifts her head to gaze at him. He doesn't fear her.

After that, she doesn't bother hiding from him. She finds him, and she walks close.

*

The wolf is good company.

Beautiful, with intelligent eyes and a gentle nature. She walks beside him on soft feet, the moonlight shining in her fur.

He likes having her there on those bright, eerie nights, an unlikely companion as he walks. He comes to think of her as his wolf. Affectionate.

Arrogant.

He misses her each time she goes.

*

The Huntsman recognizes her each time she appears, not a moment's hesitation when she comes out of the shadows to be near him. She thinks of him as her Huntsman.

Red wonders if he would recognize her as a girl.

At night, alone in her bed, she wonders what it would be like to have him there beside her, warm and steady and unchanging.

She wonders if the man who cares for the wolf as he does could care for the girl the wolf becomes when the moon moves beyond the horizon.

For the girl who becomes the wolf.

*

He is simply walking when he meets a girl in a red cloak, a beacon in the green and brown of the forest.

She smiles like she knows him. "Hello, huntsman."

Her eyes are bright, her hair gleaming in the sunlight from above. She feels familiar, but he can't place why. "Have we met?"

Her smile broadens. "No. I'm Red."

He goes with her to her little cabin when she asks him to come.

*

She saves him once.

It's just a pair of wolves, no pack nearby, but they seem to come from nowhere, lunging so quickly that Red is barely able to put her body between her Huntsman and his attacker.

The pain of the wolf's teeth is blinding. She nearly loses her control, her self.

He is there before the instincts take over, two sure, sharp arrows ending the skirmish as quickly as it began.

He cleans the wound on her leg carefully, barely pausing at the involuntary growl of pain that rumbles in her chest. His hands are gentle, and when he is finished tending to the wound, he strokes the top of her head with the tips of his fingers. 

Red thinks that she loves him. 

Red knows that loving someone is dangerous.

*

He knows what she is; the cycles of the moon do not escape him.

He still watches for his wolf as the moon wanes, wondering about her wound.

And each day, he looks for a girl with a bandage around her left arm.

After lingering for a week near the place where they were attacked, he gives up and returns to Red's cabin for a visit.

*

Red kisses him for the first time two nights after a full moon, a night that she spent walking with him in the rain, the forest around them glistening as if sprinkled with fairy dust.

He is here with her now, and the rain is still falling, and he is beautiful.

And she thinks that she is in love with him.

He hesitates for a moment - just long enough for her contemplate taking it all back - then draws her in closer. 

His lips are gentle but sure, warm where his hand cupping her cheek is cool, the contrast making her shiver even as Red allows herself to sink into it, to take it deeper, pulling him down with her.

He is gentle when he removes her clothes, almost reverent. It is maddening, his unhurried pace and the way that his fingers brush against her skin as it is revealed. Then his lips and hands are everywhere, everywhere, everywhere except for where she wants them.

"Please," she gasps, clutching at him, fingernails biting into his skin until he hisses, hips surging forward hard, rough

 _good_ , so good, exactly what she wants, what she craves, what will take her over the edge, what will break her.

"You're beautiful," he breathes against her neck, lips pressed to sweat-damp skin.

*

He often goes to Red on nights that he doesn't hunt, tucked away in her warm little cabin. They keep the quiet, disturbing it only with murmurs and moans.

He stays out on the night of the wolves.

The moon has just risen above the trees when his wolf appears, bright eyes and silent feet.

"Hello there," he greets.

The wolf, of course, doesn't respond. She walks beside him all night, a warm, constant presence.

He thinks he might love his wolf, or at least he loves the company that she offers.

And when he returns to Red's cabin two days later, he realizes that he might love her too.

*

The Huntsman disappears.

It is not unusual for him to spend days or even weeks at a time away from Red's little cabin, but when she sees him neither as the wolf nor as herself, she begins to worry. She searches for him, tracks him, but she cannot find any sign of him. She doesn't understand how, but he hasn't left any trail for her to follow.

She misses him. Without him, she is alone again.

She fears that he has died, but she never allows herself to say it aloud.

There is no one to hear.

*

Graham has barely taken a seat at the counter at Granny's when Ruby is pushing a glass of whiskey to him. He smiles ruefully. "Thanks."

"You look like you could use it," she replies. She lingers for a moment, one long fingernail tapping on the counter's edge. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing this won't solve," he says, tipping his glass at her.

"Come on," she chides. "Out with it. Girl trouble?"

He grimaces. His arrangement with Regina isn't nearly as well-kept a secret as Graham would like. "Don't be silly," he says before knocking back the last of his drink. "Plenty of reasons for a man to drink."

Ruby arches an eyebrow. "I'll bet there are."

She walks away before he can respond, leaving him feeling oddly bereft, alone with an empty glass.


End file.
